


The Beginings of Freedom

by ShandyCandy278



Series: The Freed Multiverse [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dream and Nightmare are the 'parents', Dream is good at massages, Error breaks out of his insanity, Everyone else are the kids, Found Family, Good dadmare, Implied Suicide Attempt, Ink is not okay, M/M, Massage, No One Is Okay, YES Dream and Nightmare are married, dadmare, implied self harm, mentioned self harm, mentioned suicide attempy, they are in love, they were married before the apple incident
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24148198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShandyCandy278/pseuds/ShandyCandy278
Summary: It's nighttime at Nightmare's castle. Everything is peaceful.It hadn't always been that way.
Relationships: Dream/Nightmare - Relationship, Dreammare, Nightmare/Dream, nightdream
Series: The Freed Multiverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742635
Comments: 28
Kudos: 137





	The Beginings of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> I DID NOT CREATE THIS CONCEPT! I just threw in my two cents and then wrote it X'D
> 
> lumie over on the Rarepair Discord Server came up with the idea, and then I, along with several others, discussed the concept with them and it grew from there.
> 
> There will be a part two eventually, and maybe some one-shots after it, but I hope you guys enjoy!

Dream remembered when this had all started, all those years ago. How he had gotten back together with his beloved, learned the truth behind everything. Ink had always painted it as sunshine and rainbows because, back then anyway, it was the only thing he had known. It was also the only thing Dream had known and in all honesty… 

Dream should have expected it much, much sooner.

He absently shook his head as he walked onwards, down the cold, stony halls of the castle that they now lived in. Everyone was asleep now, tucked safely and neatly into their rooms. Dream might not be the best at handling everything that their ‘children’ did, but the one thing he did know how to do was make sure that they were all actually asleep- even the ones who didn’t ‘need’ too.

Of course, Nightmare had to help him with that at first, but he was pretty sure that he knew what he was doing now.

“Are they all in bed?” Nightmare’s familiar voice asked as Dream walked into their room, slowly closing the door behind him.

“Yup! Even Error and Ink are asleep now.”

“Any problems?” His lover asked from his desk, looking over some papers he had in his gloved hands.

“Not really.” Dream shrugged. “Horror has crumbs all over his floor though.”

“That’s technically progress.” Nightmare pointed out. “Crumbs mean that he’s eating, not hoarding like he was before. We also reached a new milestone. He can eat three normal-sized foods a day  _ plus _ an afternoon snack now, outside of his nighttime one.”

“That’s great!” It was definitely progress. When Dream had first joined after learning the truth, he knew that Horror could only stomach one regular meal and one small meal a day. “How are Dust, Killer, Cross, Hearts, Fresh, and Error doing? Do you know? I have a harder time sensing negative emotions…”

“They’re mostly doing fine.” Nightmare admitted as he put the paperwork down and turned to look at Dream with a soft frown. “I know Cross didn’t sleep last night though, and that Error had a momentary relapse.”

“Was it because of what happened yesterday?”

“Not quite.” Nightmare sighed, absently rubbing his head. “Cross felt like someone, not one of us, was watching him and was afraid his Chara might have possessed him again, wanting to OVERWRITE everything and start causing trouble. I talked to him about it today and smoothed it out, but I’m glad that he’s asleep now. Error was the most affected by what happened during our visit to Surface!Swapfell V12 though.” 

Dream winced at the reminder. There had been so many people screaming and yelling, and that paired with the snowstorm had been… very unwanted, to say the least. Then there had been that kid that thought that it would be cool to touch Error, and he had panicked and… well…

Dream had had to ward the people of the AU off with help from the others while Nightmare calmed Error down, but apparently, that had been enough to do more harm than Dream had thought.

“Did he do any damage to himself?”

“Some.” Dream wasn’t going to ask about the nitty-gritty details, he knew that Nightmare wouldn’t tell him. Privacy and trust were important to both of them. “He did a good job at hiding it today, but let’s try to make sure no one pushes it for a few more days. Especially with how rambunctious they can be.” Nightmare paused for a moment, and then, in a softer whisper, continued. “Has Ink told you anything? He’s been acting a bit antsy lately.”

“He tried to earlier today, but he didn’t fall through and started talking about something else, playing it off as his memory.” Dream confessed. “I’m almost certain it has to do something with… you know…”

_ “Them.” _ Nightmare hissed, anger and malice buried deep within his voice. Dream didn’t blame him- he felt the exact same way his husband did.

_ The Creators. _

Dream hadn’t understood it when Ink had first explained them to him. He just… couldn’t comprehend the idea of a higher power so great, that they could control  _ everything. _ He had only just left his home Universe then- lost and confused, mourning the loss of his beloved and fearing for the future before them. As the centuries past, Dream had slowly started to get a feel for just what these creatures were- although he had never gotten the full view until he had walked in on Ink battling Nightmare and his lackeys alone, without help from him or Blue.

_ “Stop trying to save this world!” _ Ink had exclaimed, gritting his teeth as he used attacks that Dream had never even seen before. He doubted that Ink had even tried to use his full power back then- he had always been a pacifist, and the fact that he was going on the offensive for once had been a very,  _ very _ big red flag.  _ “This isn’t how the story is supposed to go!” _

It had taken a few more years for Dream to finally realize what had been going on though. Nightmare had been, indeed, trying to take over the Multiverse- but instead of doing it purely for misery, he targeted the worlds that needed help and helped them rebuild themselves.

And Ink had not been happy about it, because that meant that they were going against the Creators’ wishes. When Dream had asked him about it, his smile had been the widest and fakest it had ever been, hiding a muted fear that Dream hadn’t even known existed.

_ “Come on, Dream- you know I want to help you!” _ He had said, far too positive and fake for Dream to actually be convinced.  _ “We can’t let Nightmare take over the Multiverse anyway. Don’t you want to protect the balance? To save him? Cause we can’t do that if we let him win!” _

What little Dream could ever feel from the guardian had not supported his words. The anxious fear that he could barely feel winding through Ink’s magic had been  _ exactly  _ what Dream had needed to seek Nightmare out and talk to him. About everything.

“How are the plans coming?” Dream asked, shaking his mind out of memory lane as he walked to stand next to the desk. Nightmare turned around in his chair to face the desk again, tentacles waving behind him tiredly as he spoke.

“Not so good.” He sighed. “The only way I can currently think of to make progress is to ask Error for help, but…”

“We can’t do that.” Dream finished, humming a little as he looked over all of the paperwork. He didn’t pretend to even  _ try _ to make sense of all of it- they both knew that he sucked at this sort of thing. “It deals with the codes, right?”

“Yup. Sci made a machine that’s mostly accurate and it’s helped immensely, but the only way that we’ll know how accurate it is, is if Error will take a look at it.”

“Maybe we could ask Blueberror?” Dream suggested softly, reaching over to slowly begin to massage his husband’s back. Nightmare groaned at the contact, slowly leaning forward onto the table as he relaxed. Some of his tentacles curled in lazy loops, one looping around Dream’s arm leisurely. It made Dream smirk triumphantly, and he was very pleased with himself as he continued. “He might not understand everything in the codes, but he’ll be able to make sure that it’s accurate. He should be back home from the Omega Timeline tomorrow, right? Maybe you can ask him then.”

“Maybe…” Nightmare hummed, his eye sockets closing as he embraced the feeling. “We’ll have to find a way to prevent Error, Fresh, and Ink from learning about it though. If they learn about what we’re trying to do, who knows what will happen.”

“True, but we’ll find a way. We always will.” Dream reminded softly, once again delving into his memories. 

After confronting and talking to Nightmare about what had happened (as well as explaining exactly who these Creators were, because Ink had never given Nightmare a straight answer), they had decided to secretly work together to learn as much as they could. It was how they had learned about Ink’s past, about the reason behind his soullessness. So many things had been revealed by reading through Ink’s notes on his scarf, and both he and Nightmare had been appalled, if not horrified.

And it had been that exact moment that they had started up their plan. Their plan to save, and protect, Ink from these ‘precious’ Creators.

It had taken many years, and lots of talking, persuading, and convincing before they reached a halfway point in their ultimate goal of saving Ink. It had taken a lot of panic attacks and reminders too, but it was thanks to that that they had been able to find both Fresh and Blueberror. 

While Fresh had been somewhat well-known amongst the outcodes, Blueberror was someone who was practically nonexistent unless you knew where to look. Both of them could hear The Creators, and it hadn’t taken long after encountering Fresh and Ink talking together for Dream to realize that Fresh was actually feeling anxious. It was odd, considering that the parasite hadn’t felt  _ anything _ before, and he and Nightmare had been quick to look into it. For Blueberror, the error had had to say it right to their faces that he could hear them before they would have even considered it. In fact, it had taken a while for Dream and Nightmare to get him to open up about how The Creators had been treating him- like a child who couldn’t take care of and protect himself. 

Both had been helped and adopted into their little found family as quickly as they could, but it was also then that they had learned about Error’s own situation with The Creators- which, frankly, could only ever be described as abusive.

Saving him had proved to be… a lot of work.

With Blueberror, they had simply needed to provide for his needs and be there for him when he needed it. Allowing him to do what he wanted to do and allowing him to prove himself had been the best way to help him.

With Fresh, they had needed to provide for him and convince him that it would be okay if he didn’t live up to the Creator’s expectations, as well as help him understand his emotions and be there when they acted up. 

With Ink, they had needed to slowly but surely convince him that it would be okay, that it wouldn’t hurt, that they wouldn’t leave him for not doing his ‘job’ just that once (although, back then, they had still had a ways to go before Ink actually moved in with them like Blueberror and Fresh had).

With  _ Error?  _

They both knew from the very beginning that they would need to break through his insanity before they could even  _ begin _ to try and help him. Although, there had been no way for either of them to comprehend what would happen after that.

“You know, you’re unfairly good at giving massages.” Nightmare murmured, slowly opening his eye socket to stare at Dream with his, in Dream’s opinion, beautiful cyan eye light. It was round, relaxed- no longer like the slit it had been back when they were on opposite sides. It made Dream’s soul flutter erratically, and he smiled down at his beloved lovingly.

“I’ve had my practice~” He sang softly, moving his hands away from Nightmare’s back to start working at his neck. Oh, Nightmare was  _ tense. _ His husband shuddered as he worked at the bones under the goop, slowly relaxing as Dream pushed on. “If you get in the bed, it’ll both feel better and be easier for me to work at it. You’re so  _ tense, _ Nightlight!”

“... You just want me to go to bed at a decent time.” Nightmare claimed with a sigh, and then he gasped when Dream started to work at a particular spot, tensing up before he practically  _ melted _ into Dream’s hands. 

“You caught me.” Dream giggled, continuing to work regardless. “So? Do you want to lay down on our bed?”

“Dream…” Nightmare groaned, blinking almost sleepily at him. “I have work to do.”

“You can get it done tomorrow. I  _ know _ that you’re ahead of schedule, Nighty- you were practically bragging about it over dinner.”

“Hmm, so I was…” Nightmare let out another content sigh, and when Dream glanced down at the tentacles he couldn’t help but notice that one of them was slowly waving back and forth. His Nightlight was so cute~!

“So? Will you go to bed with me?”

“... Only because you put up such a compelling argument.” Nightmare didn’t look like he wanted to move though, so Dream was more than happy to scoop his goopy husband up in his arms.

“Wha- Dream!” A brilliant flush snapped into place over Nightmare’s face, and his tentacles wrapped around Dream wherever they could, squeezing him softly. “I can walk!”

“But you looked so comfortable, Moonbeam.” Dream was already walking over to their bed, and he gently placed Nightmare down on it. Nightmare grumbled some mild insults under his breath, but lay down in the center of the bed anyway, laying his head in his folded arms and laying on his stomach. 

Dream giggled again as he followed, sitting down on Nightmare’s lower back so that he could continue to work on Nightmare’s neck. The pleased sounds that followed filled Dream with something that he knew no one else could make him feel, but it wasn’t long before he found himself looking back on the past once more.

It hadn’t taken them as long as they thought it would to convince him to stay in their home instead of in the Anti-Void- which, according to Blueberror, was the reason why they had even become errors in the first place. All they had to do was promise warmth, chocolate, Undernovela, privacy, and to not interrupt him during his work. Well, that and earn his trust, which was perhaps the only reason why it took a few months before Error was living with them. 

It had been much more progress than they had made with Ink at the time, considering that Ink wouldn’t even consider moving out of the Doodle Sphere (not to mention that he had still been oblivious to the fact that they were working together at the time- they had both known that Ink wouldn’t have taken it well if he knew that they had ‘gone against the story’). Dream and Nightmare had both almost been cocky over it when it had first happened.

They had both woken up in the middle of the night to Error lost in hysteria and screaming bloody murder, arms and skull covered in self-inflicted wounds. No matter how hard Dream and Nightmare tried, they couldn’t snap him out of it, and moments later Error fell into a reboot that lasted throughout the entire night.

When he had finally come to, Nightmare and Dream could have only described his emotions as numb. Error couldn’t remember anything about the night prior, but at the same time his eagerness to destroy any and all abominations had been muted. He gained the drive back the next day, but the whole thing had just been so… unexpected. 

As Dream moved away from Nightmare’s neck and back to his back, slowly making his way down to the tentacles, he could recall in complete clarity how confused and worried they had both had been for Error- especially when the same exact thing happened a few nights later.

_ “Oh!” _ Nightmare gasped as Dream started massaging the base of his tentacles, and when Dream made a questioning hum he complied. “I… that feels weird…”

“It’s been a while since I massaged them, hasn’t it?” Dream asked with a small smile, pleased as the tentacle he was working on curled and relaxed at his ministrations- to the point where the entire thing just lay limp in his hands, allowing him to mold the appendage to his will.

“... mhmm…” Nightmare let out another pleased hum as Dream continued to work, and while he did, he couldn’t help but think back to the time while they had been struggling to figure out how to help Error with his sudden self-harming panic attacks. They knew what some AUs did to those who had ‘episodes’ like these, and they had both sworn to never  _ ever _ do that to Error. They’d help him without restraining his movement, and without locking him away.

It had been the fifteenth time Error had gone into an episode when Dream had finally reacted out of instinct, and instead of letting Error pass out when the reboot came, he had summoned a dream orb and pushed it into his head, knocking him out and sending him into a very deep, very peaceful sleep.

Dream had panicked not long after that- he had no idea if his actions had either helped or made it worse, and neither he nor Nightmare knew if Error would be able to remember what had happened when he woke up, or if he would feel betrayed and run back to the Anti-Void, placing any and all progress they might have had in the negatives.

What had actually ended up happening though, when Nightmare and Dream went down to check on him after an explosion of negative emotions, was one that still haunted Dream to this day.

_ “I killed them.” _ Error’s horrified and glitching voice echoed in his head, tears falling down his eye sockets and blood falling down his bones, a glitching red bone aimed right at his SOUL.  _ “I killed all of them.” _

It had taken several hours for them to finally help Error calm down and get him healed up- especially with his haphephobia, but after that came a whole new set of problems. Error would refuse to eat or drink, even if it consisted of chocolate. He stopped watching Undernovela and refused to even leave his room. It took effort on both Dream and Nightmare’s part to convince him to even do anything at all. 

Well, anything that didn’t involve him trying to end his life, anyway. For the longest time, neither of them could leave Error alone for longer than thirty seconds. Dream was so glad that that wasn’t the case anymore.

“Is something wrong, Dream?” Nightmare asked, looking over his shoulder. Dream snapped out of his thoughts to look at him, and when he did he couldn’t help but mentally coo over how beautiful Nightmare’s eyelight looked as a heart. The love and happiness that Dream could feel from his husband sent a pleasant shiver up his spine, but Dream shook it off and returned to starting on the second tentacle.

“I’m just thinking.” He confessed, rubbing rhythmically around the base of the second appendage. He could almost feel how soothing it felt for Nightmare to have his tentacles massaged with the pleased shudder that went through his bones.

“‘bout what?” He asked, closing his eye socket with a small hum.

“Just about how far we’ve come. How far we’ve  _ all _ come.” Nightmare made a small noise of acknowledgment, but didn’t think any more of it and returned to allowing himself to feel good. Dream let his thoughts wander again, absently humming an old tune as he worked.

While both Dream and Nightmare had been thrown off by Error’s new view on life, it had been absolutely horrifying when Ink had freaked out over Error’s disappearance. Not long after that, he had stumbled upon their little secret.

_ “He’s not supposed to be like this!” _ Ink had practically screamed, his chest heaving for air he didn’t need and tears falling from his sockets. Even as he fell into a state of panic, he prepared to fight them on behalf of The Creators to ‘return things to normal’.  _ “This isn’t what they want!  _ **_What have you done?!”_ **

Simply put, the only way they had even won that battle was because Dream had used five different dream orbs on Ink, along with one of Nightmare’s own. 

Dream could recall clearly what had happened after that as he moved on from the second to start massaging the third tentacle. Ink had tried to attack them again after he finally woke up a full week after the incident, but when he threw an attack at him Error had, quite literally, jumped in the way. Ink had always wanted Error alive (Dream and Nightmare could only guess that it was because The Creators wanted him alive and because he didn’t have a world he could be reborn into), so it wasn’t surprising when Ink’s attack missed them due to Error’s presence.

Ink had tried. He had tried so hard, so  _ very hard,  _ to convince Error to go back to the way he was. To go back to the way that The Creators liked him best, because they didn’t like it when things weren’t the way they were supposed to be. At the end of his pleads for Error to go back to the Anti-Void, Ink had even confessed to being absolutely  _ terrified _ of The Creators abandoning him- of not being interesting enough and of not being able to entertain them. 

Error had walked forward once Ink finished, and in all honesty, Dream and Nightmare hadn’t known what he would do back then. They didn’t know if he would accept, or if he would decline. In fact, Dream would have bet everything that Error was going up to Ink to beg for him to take his life, to end his misery, and stop his madness.

But then Error had wrapped his arms around Ink, both comforting him and pinning him in place with his hug. Dream could remember Ink’s eye lights shrinking into pinpricks as Error whispered something that only they could hear just moments before Error crashed and rebooted.

And then, finally, Ink broke.

As Dream moved on to the fourth tentacle, he could recall how hard it had been. How hard it was to just stand there and let it happen- to watch as Ink wrapped his arms around Error and sob hysterically. But both he and Nightmare had known that this had been  _ their _ moment, and that they were not to interrupt.

A month later, Ink had moved into their home and was given his own room in Nightmare’s castle. It was the biggest step Nightmare and Dream had ever seen him take during his recovery.

And now, the only thing left to do was figure out how to cut their Multiverse off from The Creators.

Ink had explained what had happened to worlds that broke free from their Creators centuries ago, back when they had first traveled together. Anything and everything related to the AU would vanish, leaving nothing but the memory of it behind. It was also, apparently, very painful. According to Ink, the same concept could be applied to the Multiverse and how it worked. If they cut themselves off from the creators without having the means to keep them alive, they would all vanish within a blink of an eye. As such, he and Nightmare were trying to figure out a different way to go about it- a way to cut them off from The Creators, but still manage to hold their own.

And so, as Nightmare had suggested just over a month prior, they were going to see if  _ they _ could become The Creators to their own Multiverse instead.

“And… done.” Dream whispered, setting the fourth and final tentacle down. A glance up told him all that he needed to know, and Dream couldn’t help but lean over to press a quick kiss to the side of his sleeping lover’s skull. Dream was then quick to rid both himself and Nightmare of their clothes before sliding into bed next to him, pulling the blankets up over them as he snuggled next to his husband.

“Sweet dreams, Nightlight.” He whispered, allowing himself to fall into a deep and peaceful sleep.


End file.
